Teilhard de Chardin lecture at Loyola University New Orleans centering on mysticism and evolution

Loyola University New Orleans announced a March 14 lecture on Jesuit Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) will be focused on the priest’s mysticism and evolution.

A leading Teilhard scholar, Sister Kathleen Duffy, will give the lecture, “Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution,” at 7pm. Duffy said in a statement, “I look forward to sharing with members of the Loyola community some aspects of Teilhard’s mysticism and showing that Teilhard’s approach has much to teach about the path to mysticism.”

Duffy is the editor of Teilhard Studies and author of Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution, which was published in 2014. The event itself will be hosted by theologian and scientist Rev. James C. Carter, S.J. Ph.D. and Loyola President Emeritus and Gerald N. Gaston Distinguished Professor in Religion and Science.

Event organizers point out that Teilhard was a paleontologist and geologist who worked to integrate evolution and faith.

Duffy has proposed that Teilhard be named a “Doctor of the Church.” A link to the petition can be found at The Teilhard de Chardin Project website.

Doctors of the Catholic Church include approximately three dozen ecclesiastical writers, from early Christian to modern times, who have been honored posthumously by popes or general councils with that title “due to the integrity of their faith, eminent learning, and personal holiness.” Those formally designated in the past as doctors of the church had previously been canonized; there is, however, no such requirement in the Code of Canon Law.

Event Details

Sponsored by the Templeton Religion Trust, this conference will look on research on virtue. Further details of the conference program can be found online at http://ctshf.nd.edu/news/call-for-papers-practicing-science-virtues-values-and-the-good-life/.